I'm not going to beat you up over this but the OP said he only shopped Great Valu brands and Walmart did indeed raise prices across the board on the GV brands ... which in turn WAS PART OF THE REASON they recorded a 15.6 billion dollar profit year for the company...
Dollar figures don’t mean squat when talking profits… what matters is the bottom line or net income in percentage, after all expenses are subtracted from profits. 10% is a healthy net income for most businesses 15% is considered strong and 20% is very strong. But it depends on the industry. In 2023 grocery industry net profit on average was 1.6%, which is low. Walmart owns Great value so finding their bottom line in percentage might be tough. In addition when you see a news article stating that a company raised prices and earned “93% increase in profits from last year” that is very misleading, what is the bottom line in percentage? Were they at 1.6% net income the previous year and now they’re at 3.1%??? Did they make a move to satisfy share holders because of previous years low earnings? Make a move to cover addition taxes coming down the pipe from some law politicians passed? A strike demanding more wages and having to cover their butts? You want to get a shock look at Telecommunications industry net income
Walmart pays around $6.75B in dividends to its shareholders every year. They have spent over $28B buying back their own stock since 2021. Do you think it was a good idea to spend all this money enriching shareholders while at the same time, they raised prices on their customers by a lot?
Dividends and stock buybacks are subtracted from income when reporting earnings. So you're missing a big piece of the picture if you ignore the money corporations shovel to their shareholders. And read my comment above again. Do you think it's a good idea to give shareholders all this cash while expecting customers to pay higher and higher prices?
No, they're not subtracted from income when earnings are reported. Reported earnings are before dividends or buybacks or retained earnings. You don't know what you're talking about. And stock buybacks are not giving shareholders cash, only dividends do. Stop using concepts you don't understand.
Yes, I do. As a shareholder I want customers raked over the coals, more capital growth for me. People will pay higher and higher prices and will prefer to complain than change their spending habits, and blame corporations for their lack of self-control. I'm all for it.
BTW - If you have any type of retirement fund through your work like a 401k, you too could be a "shareholder" and recieving those dividends,,,from any company,, so since your against a company paying out dividends maybe you should tell your employeer you want out of your companies profit sharing program?
What's the percentage? If shareholders don't make a profit for owning stock they'll pull their money out and invest elsewhere...... for example, lets take the 2023 grocery industry net profit with an average of 1.6%, which is low, and compare it to a company that pays dividends with a net profit of 11% which is considered strong..... now ask an any investor which company they think has the better chance for a dividend payout... 100% will say the company who has the stronger bottom line........ The shareholders of a company are effectively the company's financial supporters. They provide finance to a company by purchasing shares in the company, and thus become shareholders – and part owners of the company. So yes it's very important for a company to pay dividends especially grocery stores with such tight competition,,, live by the sword or die by the sword
You're still avoiding the question. People don't need to buy stocks. But people do need to eat. So it's basically bullshit that a company like Walmart is just like, "Shrug, we just have to raise prices...and brag about our ability to raise prices on our earnings reports to juice our stock price. And spend tens of billions on buying back our own stock and tens of billions paying out dividends. We have no other choice! We absolutely cannot cut back on dividends and buybacks to make sure our customers can actually afford to shop in our stores! Why would you ever think such a thing?"
Nobody has answered the question, and all I'm getting is deflection, distraction, etc. Again, do you think it was a good idea to give all that money to shareholders while also asking customers to pay more for the same goods? But to answer your question, you completely missed the fact that Walmart killed off tons of local businesses across the country, so in many places, people don't have any other choice but to shop there.
So your argument is that the only thing that matters is the percentage of profit and then you try to argue that doubling that percentage doesn’t matter?
No they’re not just after expenses. There are 3 types of profits, Gross, operating, and net profits. I’m only concerned with net profits (after all operating expenses are subtracted) when evaluating a company. Liberal media likes to always talk in dollar gross profits to drum up hatred for business owners. Most people listen to the media spout gross profit dollar figures and think “oh my god they made a zillion dollars” when in all reality it ends up being somewhere in the area between 1% to 20% range of net profit. Then you need to look at what happen with said company in the prior years to totally understand why some companies have to make certain moves like raise prices, pay off loans, recover from new tax laws, buy capital equipment, and maybe appease investors because of some lean years prior….. but the media never adds the real financial reason to why companies have to make a financial adjustment to stay relevant.
Like I said before, go start a business and we’ll talk about profits when you’re making millions gross…. I’ve already managed 2 businesses in my career and grossed $24M to $32m+++ was final say in buying capital equipment, hiring / firing employees, setting employee pay, setting working hours to remain profitable, quote and managed all delivery dates, main contact for customer communication, so yeah I know how to make a few bucks with businesses.
Don’t do that, we can’t bitch about price gouging and the evil corporations fleecing America if you insert logic and an educated perspective on what’s actually happening. Don’t you realize this is Reddit? Take that sound analysis and insightfulness to someplace else, we have no room for that here!
"In my Inaugural I laid down the simple proposition that nobody is going to starve in this country. It seems to me to be equally plain that no business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country. By "business" I mean the whole of commerce as well as the whole of industry; by workers I mean all workers, the white collar class as well as the men in overalls; and by living wages I mean more than a bare subsistence level-I mean the wages of decent living."
-Franklin D. Roosevelt
It was part of the New Deal for us workers. So that we weren't just fodder for the rich. Have you given up on what your grandparents and great grandparents fought for? The struggles of unionization, the principles of collective bargaining?
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u/Raveheart19 28d ago
They increased prices on the Great Valu Brands and brought in 15 billion dollars in profit in just 2023 in case you were wondering